But I was wrong. The above statement is the bitter end result of a chain of logic based on understanding how the above definitions are intertwined with the up-bringing of every pink person born and raised in the United States. The connections are not as obvious to some as they are to me.
Further, those who deal with this topic have carefully crafted the popular definition of "racism", so that at least some pink-Americans can claim not to be racist, at all. It is important to these people, whether pink-Americans or Americans of Color (see internalized racism), to deny that they subscribe to the idea that, "all pink-Americans are racists."
Sadly, even such a luminary in the struggle against racism as Lerone Bennett can be seen in a panel on the racism of Abraham Lincoln joining the other panelists, including other people of color, in denying that all pink-Americans are racist. Yet, it is precisely people like Bennett, among others, who would gain the most from this severe notion of the racism of pink-Americans.
To understand how this could be true, we must first dispel the notion that, "because all would be guilty, none would be; that if all pink-Americans are racist, then racism is meaningless because 'every one' is." This argument hinges on the proposition that when we identify any attribute of this "pink" group, it must be an attribute of all mankind, a redirection of focus. Suddenly, we are not referring to a segment or discrete subset of a larger whole, but rather to the "totality of humans." And, this is precisely how most pink-Americans see themselves: The exemplar of all humans. Using the same faulty logic, humans who commit the crime of murder may say that all murderers are human, therefore murder, being natural cannot be a crime and is meaningless -- and they will stand on just as solid ground. Such an argument would be for the benefit of murderers, alone. Those humans who do not commit murderer may properly ignore it, just as Americans of Color, whether or not born and raised in the United States, may ignore the equally nihilist argument of racist pink-Americans.
Let me make the statement: pink-Americans are a subset of the larger whole called humankind. It is that subset I am referring to. So, my accusation does not refer to all mankind, only to the subset called pink-Americans like me.
No one else in the United States can be accused of being racist. Why?
First, if "racism" is "race prejudice plus power," as here defined, then only pink-Americans can express it. The "power" of this society resides exclusively in pink-American hands and was designed exclusively for their benefit. People of color presently involved in the structures and institutions of power in this country are merely carrying out the institutionalized wishes of pink-Americans, "working for the man," as it were.
Second, as amplified in most of the writings of the authors cited on this web site (See Anti Racism Workshop), the nuclear families most pink-Americans are raised in are not a vacuum. Therefore, even if our parents taught us nothing at all about racism, we will have received the message from myriad other sources. Indeed, since our parents were raised in exactly the same conditions, immersed in the American racist message, they cannot have taught us "nothing" about racism. Thus, every pink-American is swimming in a sea of institutionalized racism, such that when we are confronted with the question, "Why are you a racist?" the most common answers are either, "What is a racist," or "Isn't everyone?"
The best any of us pink-Americans can do against this, until our institutions are completely revamped, is to recognize the "voice of racism" instilled into our brains and do everything we can to act against it in our own lives. We can start by recognizing that we are not first and only, "pink-Americans," but first, human beings along with all other human beings on this planet. Then, and only then, we happen to be Americans. And, finally, the fact that our skin lacks almost all melanin is no more relevant to our behavior or mental attributes than is the presence of melanin, or the color of our hair or eyes (also caused by melanin).
Many pink-Americans think the only racist things that were done in America had to do with the kidnapping and enslavement of Africans hundreds of years ago. They claim that, since they were not even alive, they cannot be to blame. Yet, these pink-Americans may look around themselves and see that they are actively using the profit gained for them by those pink-Americans who did visit slavery upon African-Americans. They can only escape the blame if they give up or share that profit with the descendants of those who were enslaved.
But, the enslavement of African-Americans, although the worst expression of racism, is not the only expression of it in the United States. All Americans of Color, but especially African-Americans, suffer from the racism of us pink-Americans. As will be seen in several of the books cited here, the extension through our history of the old "one drop" law, has created a nation with "two rooms," one for pink-Americans, and one for Americans of Color. It is true, for those in the "Americans of Color" room, that the lighter one's skin color, the closer to the door between the two rooms one stands; the darker, the farther away. But, the door is permanently locked. Even the children of a pink-American and an American of Color will not be allowed in the "pink-Americans" room.
The tragic consequences of this arrangement are many. Under certain circumstances and for particular purposes, these children, especially when adults, are encouraged to labor under the delusion that they are accepted as "pink-Americans" by other "pink-Americans." Those of us who know the sad truth, dread the moment when these children will realize they were never in the "pink-Americans" room at all, but merely pressing their noses against the door.
Just as there are gradations of skin color in the "Americans of Color" room, there are gradations of racism among those in the "pink-Americans" room. For it is true that some of them do, indeed, wake up instinctively sniffing for the next "N----" to lynch. But, the vast majority of us are garden-variety racists, whom I have chosen to label "Mushrooms."
If this introduction has taken the "offensive" edge off of my initial accusation, perhaps you, my pink-American reader, are "fair-minded." If so, welcome. I invite you to read my thesis, entitled "Mushrooms." I wrote it especially for you. If you still feel the "sting" of offense, I invite you to move on. We need waste no more time on each other.
Persons of Color who have read this far are welcome to my site for any purpose you may have in mind. I would be flattered to discover you had anything to learn here.
James Lester
Use of the word "pink," instead of "white" was added on August 28, 2013 in recognition of the arbitrariness of the attribution of "colors" for the skin of humans; and the "loaded" nature of the choice of white as the color of the oppressor group. Put a piece of white paper next to any European-American's face and you cannot state, truthfully, that their face is the same color as the paper. Unexposed to sun, it will be closer to pink. In any case I know of no way to name any color that will accurately match more than a few individual humans anywhere, let alone whole populations. Let us live, then, with the discomfort of "pink, rather than the smugness of "white." JGL
No comments:
Post a Comment